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Pistons vs Bucks
Series 1-0 DET
Wednesday April 26th, 2006
7:30pm

The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI
TV: tv20 Detroit / NBATV / RNBATV
Radio: WDFN 1130 AM

BillLaimbeer (http://www.pistonsforum.com/members/143.html)'s Look at this series:

The Milwaukee Bucks will be the Pistons 1st round opponent this year. At 40-42, the Bucks will be the only team in the 2006 NBA playoffs with a losing record.

The Bucks started out the season pretty strong (17-11), but have had losing records in each of the last four months:

November 7-6
December 9-5
January 7-10
February 6-7
March 7-8
April 4-6

Milwaukee depends on Michael Redd (25.4 ppg) for over a quarter of their offense. On any given night, Redd can go off for 40+ points. In the 3 games Redd scored 40+ this year, however, the Bucks are 1-2. The shooting guard is the only position that Milwaukee holds the advantage over the Pistons (Rip Hamilton).

The Bucks have some youth at most key positions and that should prove to be the difference in this series. Point guard T.J. Ford is playing in his first full season. Ford averages 12.2 ppg and 6.6 assists per game (14th in the NBA). Edge: Detroit (Chauncey Billups)

At the small forward, Bobby Simmons is really in his 2nd full season as a starter. His numbers and experience are somewhat similar to Tayshuan Prince, but I'll give a slight edge to Detroit with Tay's all-around game.

The Pistons also have an advantage inside with the Wallace's matching up against rookie Andrew Bogut (good rebounding and FG% numbers) and Jamaal Magloire (3rd season as a starter in the NBA, 9.5 rebounds per game).

The bench production differs a little bit, as far as scoring goes. The Bucks have 8 guys scoring 8+ ppg. The Pistons have 7 guys scoring 7+ ppg. Detroit most likely will use an 8-man rotation with McDyess, Delk, and Hunter coming off the bench.
Defense: The Pistons rank 3rd in the NBA for points allowed (90.1). The Bucks rank 20th, giving up 99.8 ppg.

The Bucks have beaten just about every team in the NBA, including Detroit, Miami, New Jersey, San Antonio, Dallas and Phoenix. With a 40-42 record, the Bucks have lost to just about every team in the NBA, as well.

Season series:
Nov 26: Det 85, @Mil 76
Jan 25: @Det 106, Mil 102 (OT)
Mar 31: @Det 112, Mil 105
Apr 17: @Mil 113, Det 93

Detroit won the season series 3-1, although the Bucks win came in a game when Detroit was resting its starters (Sheed and Rip didn't even dress). The 3 Piston wins were all close games.

For a #1 vs. #8 matchup, these games will be more competitive than most people predict. My guess is the Pistons win the series 4-1. The difference will be Detroit's experience.

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Since rip is a little banged up we should have more shots else where so that rip can hound michael redd. I would like to see a fast start so all the bench can have playoff time.

Couple of things to look for tommorrow night...

- First is of course, will Rip play and how effective can he be coming off the spained ankle. Press reports today indicate he will start and seem to imply he won't be slowed by the injury.

- More important for Rip, will the refs let him play the way he did in game 1? Yeah, it's a playoff game, and yeah you can get away with more than in the regular season, but it wouldn't surprise me to see Rip pick up a couple of quick fouls in game 2. Maybe Sheed too. The bench will be more important tomorrow.

- How about that hack-a-Ben? When Stotts pulled that out of the bag of tricks it was really too late in the game to make any difference (only a couple of hackable posessions before the 2:00 minute mark). So, why then? I'm guessing he was planting a seed, trying to get inside Ben's head a bit. It's good that BBen split the throws. But I wonder what might happen if you intentionally fouled Ben everytime he grabbed an offensive board.

- Interesting stats in one of the articles about how many games the Pistons starters have played since 03/04. Prince leads the league with 295 games. CB, BBen, and Rip are 2, 3, and 4. Then Bowen, then Sheed. Talk about settling into a pre-game routine. These guys will need occupational therapy to figure out what to do with themselves if they ever lose in the first round.

- Game 2 seems the pivotal one to me. The Pistons did what they were supposed to do in game 1. It will be a different Bucks team (though still without Kukoc) on Wednesday. I'd guess a Pistons win somewhere in the 94-88 or 94-86 range. Win Wednesday and it's all over except the shouting. Let the Bucks pick one up and they might grab another in cheese-land.

Ps 96
Bs 76
no mercy

Got some info feom MilwJournalsentinel on the announcers from Game 1(BTW, our online and beat writers in Detroit rank second to Nashville as the worst I've read). Matt devlin is the Charlotte NBA PBP guy and u know about Van Gundy, who is very good. For Game 2, it'll be Ian Eagle(?) and my boy Bill Raftery("Pistons start the game MAN 2 MAN!)

Got some info feom MilwJournalsentinel on the announcers from Game 1(BTW, our online and beat writers in Detroit rank second to Nashville as the worst I've read). Matt devlin is the Charlotte NBA PBP guy and u know about Van Gundy, who is very good. For Game 2, it'll be Ian Eagle(?) and my boy Bill Raftery("Pistons start the game MAN 2 MAN!)BTW, SI.com ranked Devlin and Adrian Branch the worst paired teamed in the league.

Bucks have not tapped Gadzuric yet. He had some good games against the Pistons. Energy guy who is hard to keep off the glass because he can camp out down there not being involved in the offense.

Still have to play the game. Only thing that can beat the Pistons is themselfs.

guess i am goin to the game, so see you guys at the palace! :D

Bucks have not tapped Gadzuric yet. He had some good games against the Pistons. Energy guy who is hard to keep off the glass because he can camp out down there not being involved in the offense.

Still have to play the game. Only thing that can beat the Pistons is themselfs.I've always wanted him to backup Ben, having watched him a lot when I lived in Milwaukee. But I think there's a caveman lurking in there. I've never-ever heard him speak....even back at UCLA!

Anyone up for bringing back guessing the score?

I say Pistons 94 Bucks 81

Gameday. Rip will definitely play. The question is, how effective will he be guarding Redd? The starting 5 minutes will give us the answer. If Rip is not effective, we can put CB or Tay on him. The 3rd option is putting Hunter on Redd.

As long as out bigs play the way they play in the 1st game, we'll be allright with or without Rip being effective, even if he sits most of the game to rest that ankle. Big Ben grabbing 12 rebounds, few blocks and steals here and there, Sheed and Tay scoring at least 15 pts each, 15 rebounds combined, a few steals and blocks here and there.

Watch out for CB to play huge in this game. After knowing that he won't be MVP, he'll have a statement game, esp he did not do much scoring in the 1st game. In addition he was below his assist average.

DETROIT BASKETBALL!!!

So what happens if Rip struggles to guard Redd on that ankle and can't even get his own offense going? Does Flip go to Delk early and often? Delfino? Mo? And if Rip has to sit out, does Tayshaun play 48 minutes at SF? This game will be interesting to see how the Rip thing plays out alone..

So what happens if Rip struggles to guard Redd on that ankle and can't even get his own offense going? Does Flip go to Delk early and often? Delfino? Mo? And if Rip has to sit out, does Tayshaun play 48 minutes at SF? This game will be interesting to see how the Rip thing plays out alone..
Are you going to pick a score FP?

I say 97-91 PISTONES!

pistons 102-81. but i hate predicting and possibly jinxin

109-93 pistons.

Pistons 106 - Bucks 91 :eyebrows:

105-79...check out www.jsonline.com (http://www.jsonline.com) for great columnists telling Bucks to quit whining. I told yall I'd lived there 2 years and Buck writers dont play. I'm getting beered up, so 'OPEN !!!!THE LOUNGE-lounge-lounge...."

CHAT IS OPEN!!!

See y'all around 7:30 ish

105-79...check out www.jsonline.com (http://www.jsonline.com) for great columnists telling Bucks to quit whining. I told yall I'd lived there 2 years and Buck writers dont play. I'm getting beered up, so 'OPEN !!!!THE LOUNGE-lounge-lounge...."

lol...yeah i'm here now -- if the economy there was better, I'd move back to Detroit, but I'll have to bide my time here for now. The writers are pretty good here--and funny.

lol...yeah i'm here now -- if the economy there was better, I'd move back to Detroit, but I'll have to bide my time here for now. The writers are pretty good here--and funny. I miss them...I even like the Bucks announcers with johnny Mac as analyst!:laugh:

I thought the Bucks would come out harder or maybe it was because we are just that much better/focused?I like that there wasn't a letdown and we should keep our foot on their throats.Roadkill time.

I thought the Bucks would come out harder or maybe it was because we are just that much better/focused?I like that there wasn't a letdown and we should keep our foot on their throats.Roadkill time.tHAT WAS A HARD EFFORT FOR Milwaukee standards. Dice has 22 and 17 in 39 minutes in 2 games: rip/Billups 14 assists-1 turnover; Ben 0 min in 4th qtr......this series is over! NEXT!

At times we looked awesome... and then we got bored. How else do you explain giving up 98 points?? Yeah Redd got his 29, but this game was over when we let them sniff our behinds at 39-37 and then went on the 12-0 run to seize control of the game. It wasn't as quite as dominating as the defensive effort put forth on Sunday during the second and third quarters, but enough to stretch it out and show them that this our house and nobody was going to steal a game 2 as others had done in the past.

Good bench play from Dice and extremely good showings by Mo who ran the charge in the second and then Hunter did the same in the 3rd.

Rip tweaked the ankle again, but showed no real affects of the injury at all, unless you want to say that Redd got his points on him??

2 down and 14 to go. 2 more and lights out for the Bucs.:nod:

This series is boring to watch. Waiting for it to get over and things to get possibly tougher in the 2nd round. The Pistons have demonstrated that they are in another class.

This series is boring to watch. Waiting for it to get over and things to get possibly tougher in the 2nd round. The Pistons have demonstrated that they are in another class. I dont care if they beat my dead Grandma and Kunta Kinte's sisters, I want the "SHIP", baby!!!

Bucks do not have any answers at this point.

Can't let them slip in a W on Sat.

Badass performance from Rip on bad wheels.

Team leading 8 Assists in 32 minutes to go with 18 points. Forget CB for MVP. This team is loaded with them. Rip keeps getting better and better, he's still young and he's locked up for years to come...

6 double digit scorers, 6 steals, 6 blocks. Brilliant.

666

The number of the Pistons beast!

I know my man Mo gets dumped on, but 8 points in 11 minutes is exactly what the doctor ordered. I pump him up tongue in cheek during chat, but consider this, last season we would have killed for an 8 point scorer off the bench not named McDyess or Hunter.

the crowd was into it early and so were the pistons. the crowd got quiet and bored in the 2nd, and so did the pistons. repeat for 2nd half. again we were doing the wave - even the upper and lower bowl at different speeds.

these aren't even playoff games. they're like exhibition games with more excitement. milwaukee is simply living on its jumpshot and has no actual gameplan.

this series is over in 4.

Holy Cow! Look at this storefront in Milwaukee!! :laugh:

http://www.pistonsforum.com/images/picdump/bambi2.jpg

Sheed interior defense may turn out to be the story in these playoffs. How underrated can a guy be? He is maybe the best. Hey, Evans did what they wanted him to do: bring some energy and hit that three ball.

Warts you're having too much fun.
And Bambi is venison.

Well, I couple of people did mention that Sheed should be in the race for Defensive Player of the Year.

Holy Cow! Look at this storefront in Milwaukee!! :laugh:

http://www.pistonsforum.com/images/picdump/bambi2.jpg

You're kidding.:laugh:

the crowd was into it early and so were the pistons. the crowd got quiet and bored in the 2nd, and so did the pistons. repeat for 2nd half. again we were doing the wave - even the upper and lower bowl at different speeds.

these aren't even playoff games. they're like exhibition games with more excitement. milwaukee is simply living on its jumpshot and has no actual gameplan.

this series is over in 4.

The Playoff atmosphere is not quit there yet. It is slightly louder due to the thunder sticks. It does get louder with each round and during close games you almost need ear plugs.

My main concern is Rip. Coach is not taking the 1st round lightly ( can you blame him? ). Rip probably should sit out but you do not want to even slightly risk letting Milw back in the series. Everyone has to be conscious of how we lost to the Bucks in the last reg-season meeting playing the bench.

Get Saturdays game and perhaps Rip can rest and lets hope Clev/Wash goes 7.

Rip's ankle problem right now seems to be the kind of thing that gets better once he can be active on the floor and get the blood flowing, with the bigger issue being keeping it from getting stiff once he comes out of the game. Certainly it would be nice to get some rest time for him between the 1st and 2nd rounds, but I don't think we need to be too concerned about it for now.

Pistons did occasionally get bored, but they came out strong again every time that Flip called a TO. Bucks never got the lead under 10 again after the big 12-0 Pistons run in the 2nd quarter.

I was thinking the Bucks would come out harder too, but whoever said it above is right - they did and it didn't matter. This year's Pistons may have the best defensive hands of any team I've ever seen play.

33 off the bench is a great thing.

Flip's postgame interview from last night.

The "Ben Wallace not back in the 4th quarter" bit at the end sounds flimsy, but you have to give props to Flip for looking like he has a spine. He's been critical of the team in both games, and as Bill Laimbeer mentioned in the telecast, probably pulled Chauncey at one point for poor shot selection.

HI-FI version for folks on broadband.

LOW-FI version for those on dial-up.

From Jsonline

"Because here's the thing about the defending Eastern Conference champions and soon-to-be NBA champs: Adjust reasonably well as the Bucks did with two days to amend their passive ways of Game 1, and the Pistons will merely - and casually - find another way to beat you down."

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=419018

I thought the reason Flip didn't put Ben back in at the end of the game was because in Game 1, Milwaukee started intentently fouling Ben in the last three and a half minutes of the game. And, they (the Pistons) didn't want to go through that again.

I'm fine with flip playing rip. I'm confident for a sweep because the team will now have an insentive to get the series done ASAP so that rip can rest and get his ankle healed.